As someone else pointed out, Ronaldinho left under the same circumstances at Paris St.-Germain. Good, average, plump, party, “injured,” unhappy, outta there. I think it was about the same time frame, too. Maybe slightly longer for us.

Do I think he’s a great player when he wants to be? Absolutely. He just doesn’t want to be for us. I think that in some instances, stars of that magnitude expect teams to have endless patience and tolerance for whatever they do. Barcelona isn’t, and never has been that kind of team.

Messi will be just fine. So will the team. I think that everyone just wants the saga to be over. As for anyone thinking, as gloomy gus types have been saying, that Barcelona turns on its superstars, I would offer that Barca has never turned on a superstar who has given his all for the side until he couldn’t any longer. Players come and players go. That’s part of life.

However, I figure no news is good news…

ballbeav on the road in sunny socal. imagine that, my first internet access in many days and i come to this site instead of the offical FCB site for my updates. that says something. course, now i need to go over there and look at the official news too.

i read about the ronnie-acmilan stuff on this site, but of course i took it with a grain of salt, and now near the bottom of this thread i see there are also rumors that R10 is going to RM/EE. so it seems nothing is certain, and there sure is a lot of keystrokes devoted to rumors.

i have a somewhat different take on the possibility that R10 is leaving. i clearly remember when he won the world player of the year award that he said: “i am not even the best player on Barca.” i am pretty sure he was referring to eto’o and messi, at least, because they were the real performers in that moment. take note, those are NOT the words of a person who thinks he is more important than the club, or who is jealous that the team is not his but messi’s (as kevin posits). so, was he being sincere, has something changed, or is there something else to this whole situation that we are not considering?

furthermore, i still am not one to say good riddance to ronnie. i realize he has been shit this year, i have seen it since the beginnning of this season — worse than last season. but i still have hope for him.and more importantly, i am worried about the effects of his export on young Messi. the two are very close, you can tell over the course of the season that they are buddies (gawd i thought they were lovers for a moment, since americans are so rigid about these things, and i am an american) and hold each other in high regard. i remember the goal where messi scored and ran over and, looking up into the Nou Camp stands, gave the trademark “hangloose” sign to R10 who was watching — and R10 and just been relegated to the stands, that was at the beginning of this whole mess, before Edmilson had even uttered the words “black sheep.” but we had a sense that rijkaard was not happy with ronnie and he wasnt in the stands because he was hurt, but for some other reason. still messi showed his loyalty with the hangloose sign. this is all to say that, will messi be unhappy if barca sends ronnie away? who knows. i think this internal stuff is kept pretty well obscured, we know little of the story, and are misled by sports journalists who need to fill papers with something to say, however inaccurate.

lastly, i have not seen anything about iniesta, but inferred from some comments here that his injury might not keep him out long. isaiah, i was depending on you for the updates. maybe there have been none to give. but now, i will go to the official site and see what else i can glean. thanks all!

ps isaiah the bar in santa cruz is the Britannia Arms, do a web search. i dont know if they have GolTV but they do have cable and Setanta for the champs league.

And John, why couldn’t you guys lose Sunday to make things interesting? Y’all are just no fun.

Won’t happen. Can’t happen. I love life too much to believe such dastardly things are possible.

Henry has begun talks with Chelsea.
Ronaldinho has been offered to the Evil Empire (which pretty much means that his brother has called every team with money to spend in Europe)
Gattuso is said to be discontented at AC Milan.

I know….this last isn’t our style at all. But man, how I have longed for a pit bull like him in front of our back line. We’d never do the deal, and I’m not even sure that he could play in La Liga without fouling all the time. But psychologically? Wow!

http://goal.com/en-US/Articolo.aspx?ContenutoId=659012

but I could have. Couldn’t have said it better myself. To sum up, everybody out of the pool, almost. That is, Ezquerro, Zambrotta, Edmilson, Gudjohnsen, Thuram, Oleguer, Sylvinho, Deco, Ronaldinho. Lordy, that’s a lotta folks. So who stays?

Dos Santos, Henry, Iniesta, Xavi, Abidal (but with a replacement), Yaya, Messi, Eto’o, Valdes, Puyol, Milito, Marquez (in a more limited role).

Anyhow, it’s an interesting read.